Rating: 3 out of 5
Analysis Services
This book is very basic and should provide a good foundation for those people who are not familiar with SQL 7's OLAP or the newer implementation called 'analysis services'.It is easy to read, the examples on the cd work perfectly and the tutorials provide a good overview of how to create your own cubes. It's pretty thin and after reading through the first few chapters I found myself putting it down and just diving into designing my own stuff with microsoft's interface. It's a very logical application and with little or no resource materials people could easily figure this out with the tutorials included with the software. This is not a good reference book, though I'm at a loss as to what would be a decent reference book on this subject since it's one of those things you either know or you don't. MDX is VERY thin, and since you can teach the basics to yourself, a reference/primer book on MDX may suit you better.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Great Intro to OLAP using SQL Server 2000/Analysis Services
After digging thru most SQL Server DBA books without finding much if any coverage of how to build an OLAP solution for Data Warehousing I found this text to be perfect for my transition to building my MOLAP data warehouse with SQL Server 2000 from Oracle data warehousing. Granted the book is not perfect but where else can you learn how Analysis Services 2000 and building an OLAP solution on MS SQL Server? The only other texts that even cover it are the MS SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit (also quite good book too with great tools on CDROM) and the MS SQL Server 2000 Reference Library (another must have for hardcore DBAs like me). You will be up and running a starter OLAP solution in no time flat.
Rating: 1 out of 5
Wasn't useful - save your money
I bought the book hoping to get a good start on learning Analysis Services. Chapter one gives a decent overview of terms and definitions for a beginner - but I know there are probably alternate places on the web to find this same information. Then I reached chapter two and couldn't believe what I saw. It was the same exact tutorial I had just done in SQL Server Analysis Services. Yes, when you install Analysis Services there is a tutorial section in the application. I had only completed the first tutorial section and then went to buy this book. I can only imagine the rest of the chapters in the book are the remaining tutorials in the application. Even the description on the back of the book almost matches the titles in the application tutorial. Of course, I won't waste my time checking, but I feel pretty confident the tutorial and the book are pretty identical. Just from flipping through that 2nd chapter I could see they used the same exact screen shots, the same instructions, etc. I plan to return the book and just go through the remaining tutorials.
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